Mr. Michael Doyle:

I will pick up on Mr. Dalton’s point and come back to pay alignment in a minute. Senator Harmon asked about what we need to do to promote it. We need to have a clear distinction. It is not just about a continuation of the service people receive through an organisation or the State. It is about an uplift on that. There is an investment, which Mr. Dalton has outlined, in respect of taking this on as a role, as a leader to manage your own budget. Another piece of your life is given over to managing it, so there has to be a reward and there have to be supports. It also has to be recognised that at a point in time a person’s needs may change, so there has to be flexibility. I do not think that there is a full understanding of the value that a PA service can bring to the community and individual receiving it.

On pay alignment, we are, as the committee will be aware, engaged with the WRC on bringing the pay of staff who provide valuable services into line with what the HSE pays for similar work, and sometimes work that is less than similar. Staff we employ, recruited and trained by Mr. Dalton, become very valuable commodities for other providers, including private providers and the HSE, so we need to close the gap. I am referring to a career for people. This is not something that people do to fill time. There was a time when PAs were people who had a few hours available to them but PAs are now people who take on the role to offer support. Mr. Dalton will have a team supporting him almost 24-7. The role is a big commitment. We want to build personal assistance as a career and people to see the value of what they bring to it. That is not seen at the moment in recruitment numbers. We are not seeing people leaving school saying this is what they want to do. We need to help them and educate them on it.